Saturday, June 9, 2012

The Mound

Eight or nine years ago a contractor friend dumped several loads of "clean" fill onto a front corner of the property. Of course the definition of "clean" is subjective, and I've since dug out from it many chunks of concrete, sewage pipe and big limestone chunks -- it seems he was digging out the foundation of an old house to make way for a new one. Some good things have come of it, though: Peony, Iris and Hosta somehow survived the trauma and I've transplanted some beautiful heritage varieties to other gardens. The Mount itself I left alone and it soon transformed into a home for enormously tall wildflowers - most of them not really welcome. Last year I started to reclaim the Mound - here are some shots:
Last June after I cleared away about a quarter of it:

I transplanted daylilies, Peony, Iris, Rudbeckia, Echinacea last year plus dug in some Tulip bulbs; I also scattered seeds from Lupin, Liatris and Hollyhock and there are many Lupin sprouts this year. I mulched a bit this spring and tadded stone steps to the top.

The next stages will include clearing away the rest of the Mound, adding more steps to the centre and continuing to transplant things from elsewhere on the property - there's always an over-abundance of Echinacea sprouting up!